1. Field
The exemplary embodiment generally relates to drives for robot systems, and more particularly, to spindle drives for robot systems.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Current vacuum robots either use a ferrofluidic or lip seal to isolate the motors and encoders from vacuum, or in the case of the Brooks MAGNATRAN® products, isolate the motor stators using a barrier wall but place the magnet rotor and encoders directly in the vacuum environment. In both of these cases, the motor is placed below the bellows and shafts are used to connect the motor to the robot arm links.
It would be advantageous to leverage an inverted drive design that places the stators on a stationary inner post and the rotor to the outside of the stators.